Interesting (to me anyway)...here's all the defensive rankings for the Pats from 2001-2023 in both points and yards allowed. Then I'll make an observation.
2001 - 6th points, 24th yards
2002 - 17th points, 23rd yards
2003 - 1st points, 7th yards
2004 - 2nd points, 9th yards
2005 - 17th points, 26th yards
2006 - 2nd points, 6th yards
2007 - 4th points, 4th yards
2008 - 8th points, 10th yards
2009 - 5th points, 11th yards
2010 - 8th points, 25th yards
2011 - 15th points, 31st yards
2012 - 9th points, 25th yards
2013 - 10th points, 26th yards
2014 - 8th points, 13th yards
2015 - 10th points, 9th yards
2016 - 1st points, 8th yards
2017 - 5th points, 29th yards
2018 - 7th points, 21st yards
2019 - 1st points, 1st yards
2020 - 7th points, 15th yards
2021 - 2nd points, 4th yards
2022 - 11th points, 8th yards
2023 - 21st points, 8th yards
Ok here's the observation. From 2001-2021, the Patriots:
- 1 time the scoring D was ranked lower than the yardage D (2015, when they were 10th in scoring D and 9th in yardage D)
- 2 times the scoring D was ranked the same as the yardage D (2007, 4th and 4th, and 2019, 1st and 1st)
- 18 times the scoring D was ranked higher than the yardage D (by an average margin of 9.6 ranking points)
But the last two seasons, the scoring D was ranked lower than the yardage D (11/8 in 2022 and 21/8 in 2023).
Why is this?
I'd suggest that from 2001-2021, the defense was aided greatly by the offense, which could (a) score, (b) move the ball, and (c) eat up time. Plus NE had good special teams. This forced opposing teams to start with worse field position, requiring them to gain more yards in order to score. The Pats' D would allow the other team to move the ball and gain yards but they'd eventually hold (the old bend-but-don't-break D) and limit the points. So the other teams always moved the ball more than they'd end up scoring. That is, their expected points given how much yardage they gained was LESS than their ACTUAL number of points scored in a game against the Pats.
But not the last two years, which have been completely opposite. The offense (ranked 17/26 in 2022 and 31/25 in 2023) has not been able to (a) score, (b) move the ball, or (c) eat up time. And the special teams has been bad. So the other teams are not needing as many yards to score points, which they've managed to do successfully a lot of the time. We can look at the Pats having the #8 yardage allowed defense and think, oh, they're pretty solid, and I think they are, but the other teams are scoring more points than you'd think given the number of yards they've allowed.
So all this to say...the offense is not just costing the Patriots their own points, they're making life so much easier on the other teams' offenses that it's putting the Pats' defense in terrible situations.